


Full Circle

by EffieA



Series: (Ravager) Family Dynamics [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 02:59:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12160167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EffieA/pseuds/EffieA
Summary: Stakar figures out Peter's connection to Yondu.





	Full Circle

**Author's Note:**

> This is a direct sequel to the first part in this series ("Obvious Child") so that should probably be read first. 
> 
> ***
> 
> Funny how the circle is a wheel  
> And it can steal someone who is a friend  
> Funny how the circle takes your flight  
> And if it's it right it brings you back again
> 
> Gene Clark, "Full Circle Song"

Stakar looks around the darkened cafeteria to make sure he’s still alone then presses a button on his comm so he can listen to the recording for the fourth time. It had been an accident that the record feature had been active when he met Quill in the bar yesterday. He’d turned it on for an early morning senior staff meeting and had completely forgotten about it. When they had been on the same crew Charlie had made a habit of ribbing Stakar about being bad with tech and maybe the big guy had a point. He fast forwards through the meeting, ten minutes of him complaining to Martinex about Aleta and then some indecipherable conversation on the flight down to the moon before getting to the part where the kid shows up. He sighs. He knows it’s probably just his mind messing with him because he happened to run into someone connected, however tenuously, to Yondu Udonta, but he can’t shake the feeling that there’s something about the boy, something just under the surface, that he’s missing. Stakar Ogord does not like missing things so he focuses on the strange young man’s voices. He only makes it about a minute before he’s interrupted by… giggling? He pushes pause and turns around to see a blue-skinned Kree female who happens to be one of the newest officers on his bridge team.

Zenta is the daughter of exiled aristocrats who had spoken out against the Emperor and his government’s policies a few too many times. She had been a child when her family fled Kree-Lar and she spent most of her life on Xandar, even joining the Corps at 19. She’d made it halfway through basic training despite the ever-present bullying and anonymous death threats until one day she’d crashed her cruiser during a solo flight. The academy launched an investigation that eventually determined that the accident had been caused by orloni damage and possible pilot error, but one of the mechanics who had inspected the ship approached her and explained in no uncertain terms that those wires had been cut and that she’d better watch her back. She quit the next day and got a job piloting freight on a mining colony. Stakar had snatched her up almost immediately; she was smarter and far better educated than most potential recruits and she learned the way around her new job quickly. Sure, there had been some grumbling from the crew when she first come aboard, but the captain had made it very clear that anyone with a problem with his recruitment decisions could leave, preferably through an airlock.

Stakar gives her a puzzled look. “Is something funny?”

“Oh, sorry, Captain. I didn’t mean to barge in on you,” she says with a sheepish smile, indicating the empty mug in her hand. “The drink dispenser here works better than the one in the main mess hall.”

“It’s fine,” he says, waving her over to the seat next to him. “But what made you laugh?”

She points to his comm as she sits down. “Play some more of that.” Stakar raises an eyebrow. “I only meant... if I hear more of it, sir, I’ll be able to explain better,” she amends. He lets the recording play for a few minutes and they listen in silence except for Zenta’s occasional snickers. Stakar only feels more confused. He pushes stop.

“OK, explain. I realize half of what comes out of that kid’s mouth is nonsense, but it’s not _that_ amusing.”

“It’s not what he’s saying, though, it’s how he’s saying it,” she says. “His use of language, I mean.”

Finally, Stakar gets it. Zenta, like most high-born Kree, is a polyglot. She’s fluent in the four most common languages in the galaxy and a few others as well and she's never felt the need to get a translator implant. “I see. What is it about the way he speaks, then?”

“Well, he says a few things here and there that I'm guessing come from his native language. I don’t recognize it, but it sounds primitive.”

“OK, so?”

“He also throws in some Xandarian words and phrases.”

“That’s hardly surprising,” Stakar says. After all, most people who live in or around the Nova Empire or do business with its citizens have picked up some Xandarian.

“No, not at all, but the thing is, he’s mostly speaking Kree.”

“Kree?” Yeah, OK, that’s a bit weird.

“Yes, and almost every curse word he uses is Kree.” She giggles again. “For example, he calls you a _sqrowgak,_ which means-”

“I know what it means,” the captain says with a scowl. He taps the area behind his ear. “Translator, remember?”

“Oh, right. Anyway, most of his slang is Kree too. As well as the weapon and ship-related terms he's using.”

“So, the boy knows Kree,” Stakar says.

“Yes, but he speaks it in a bizarre way," she says in a way that makes it sound like there's something she's not saying.

“He learned recently then?” This is all very interesting as far as linguistic stuff goes, but Stakar isn’t sure how relevant it is.

“Hmm, no. No, I don’t think so, he seems to be very familiar with the words he's using, actually. I’d guess he's been speaking it for years, but his accent is horrendous and his pronunciation is a bit off. Frankly, it makes him sound ridiculous and uneducated, like-”

Understanding hits Stakar like a wave. He remembers running off to the beach with Aleta when they were just children. They were playing in the surf when a small wave took them by surprise. She had managed to keep her balance but it had knocked him over and he had opened his eyes to Aleta’s face grinning down at him. It feels like that, except it’s not Aleta’s face he’s seeing. It’s the face of a young man, barely an adult, with red eyes and bright blue skin covered in scars. He’s snarling at Stakar through the neon bars of a shock-cage and he clearly doesn’t understand a word the Ravager is saying.

“Like a slave,” he says, finishing her sentence.

Zenta clearly misinterprets his reaction because her eyes widen at the look of horror on his face. “Captain, I didn’t mean- I certainly do not condone-”

Stakar forces himself back to the present. “I know that, Zenta. It’s not you. It’s… Uh, can you do something for me?”

“Of course.”

“On your way back to the bridge could you comm Martinex and ask him to meet me here?” He can’t even trust himself to do something as simple as that right now.

“Yes, sir. I’m on it.” She makes her way to the door with a concerned look at her captain.

“And tell him to bring a data pad!” He calls after her.

He gets up and starts to pace up and down between the tables. It would explain a lot. That little feint-and-twist move Quill demonstrated in the bar, for one thing. His dad taught him to shoot, huh? How many times had Stakar seen that move during battles in those early days before Yondu got his fin implant and Yaka arrow? After he got comfortable with the arrow he had pretty much stopped using guns. Then there was the almost deliberately short temper. The bared teeth. The way the kid had cockily slouched in the M-ship seat and plopped his boots down on the control console, the sort of behavior that Stakar had always assumed was used to mask deep-seated insecurity. The boy has his own distinct personality, sure, but there are pieces of it, elements of it that are... That are unmistakably...

“You wanted me, Captain?” Martinex asks as he switches on the lights.

“Oh, there you are, Marty. Yeah, come here and sit down,” he says as he goes back to his seat. “I need you to look up something.”

“Sure, but is everything all right? Zenta sounded a little worried.”

Stakar ignores the question. “Do you remember when we found out about Yondu, what he was doing, I mean?” He’s trying to keep his voice steady. “That is, how we found out?”

Martinex frowns. He doesn't like the way this conversation is going. Of course he does remember. He recalls every horrible detail and he also distinctly remembers the year or so after that discovery and the excessive drinking, drug consumption and moodiness that followed in its wake. Not to mention the temporary, but highly disturbing, increase in the property damage that used to occur after every fight with Aleta. “I believe one of his crew members ratted him out. A Krylorian, I think? A guy named Driget, or something like that.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. Didn’t he send us stuff? Evidence?”

“Yes. He sent the roster of names they’d received from the… client,” Martinex says with considerable distaste. “Captain, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to dredge this up.”

He ignores that too. “Do we still have that list saved somewhere?”

“I think so, but-”

“Use that,” the captain says, waving his hand in the direction of the data pad. “Pull it up for me.”

“Stakar, I really don’t-”

“That’s an order, son.”

“All right, fine, since you’re going to be like that!” His first mate glares at him but he unlocks the device and runs a record search. It takes a few strained minutes. “OK, got it.”

“Give it here, T'Naga.” Stakar scrolls through the roster. There are eight names and locations, all of which are crossed out to indicate the jobs were completed. That’s not the only thing it indicates, he thinks with a shudder.  Underneath the names of those poor children are several more names. At the time, they had all thought that these kids were the lucky ones. The ones that stayed home, safe and secure. The ones they’d saved from being trafficked to some terrible fate. He forces himself to read the first entry. Even though it could no longer be a surprise, it hits him like a shot from a quad blaster. _Peter Quill, Terra_.

He reaches out and smacks Zenta’s forgotten mug. He watches it fly off the table and smash into pieces on the metal floor. “That bastard! That complete and utter _bastard.”_

**Author's Note:**

> I've really enjoyed reading fics about language works in the GotG universe so I wanted to play around with that a little.
> 
> Also, I know a lot of food and school-related words in the language of the country I live in but otherwise my vocabularly is not great and my grasp on the grammar is basically nonexistent. I also tend to forget about the female forms of words and default to to the male ones. So sometimes when my students get shy about speaking English in front of me, I switch to their language to make them laugh. This was at least a little inspired by that.


End file.
